I still have great affection for Sunday 3rd April 1983
when my father took two of my brothers and myself to Longleat, Warminster, for what
was day one of a two day 20th anniversary celebration of Doctor Who.

Our father took us and it took 2 and a half hours to
get there: we then spent most of the day queuing up to get autographs or
to get into the merchandise tent, into the studio sets or the other
displays. Real soldiers dressed as UNIT soldiers, all protectively making
sure people couldn't sneak into the tents by avoiding the real queue, and
sometimes failing. Wonderful memories.

At the time I'd wanted to see 'The Dalek Invasion Of
Earth' which was being shown in another tent but that proved impossible.
Three hours of queuing to get three autographs was the replacement and it
was all good fun. It was hot and sunny and it was easy to like the grounds
of Longleat, I've been back a few times since.

Monday 4th April was day two of 'A Celebration' but I
didn't go to that. Instead we stayed and listened to Ed Stewart's 2-hour
radio programme which broadcast from the event. I must find the tape out
that I recorded at the time, I haven't listened to it for many years.

The
Longleat Doctor Who Exhibition lasted for years afterwards at
Longleat and happily friend James Spence and I got photos from those days.
James had been to that Longleat celebration in 1983 as had another chap
Andrew O'Day, and we all met in the years following.

It is thanks to Andrew that there are photos from 1983
to stir up memories of Doctor Who cast and crew who happily wandered
around, besieged by a very large and pleased crowd.

On the next two pages are Andrew's 1983
photos, followed by the exhibition photos taken on James' camera. Thanks go
to both of them for their inclusion on these pages.

Tim Harris (Sunday
10th June 2012)

Below: Ephemera relating to this amazing event

Above: Front cover to the celebration booklet and introduction by Lord Bath.

Above: Layout for the celebration days at Longleat.

Above: My ticket from 1983, front and back.

Left: Celebratory badge as sold at the event.

The text below has been provided by Andrew O'Day,
provider of many of the photographs on these Longleat pages.

“To be honest,
I don’t remember too many ‘individual’ details from Longleat 1983 (’20
Years of a Time Lord’), as I was too young then. I remember seeing the
trailers for the event on BBC1, including a clip from “Carnival of
Monsters” and staying in a farm-house nearby with my Mum and step-dad.
What I do carry with me of the actual event is an ‘overall impression’: an
impression of a busy event, of mass autograph queues, and of being in
tents. While people who were older and can ‘remember better’ often
criticise the event for poor organisation and very rude security soldiers
keeping attendees away from guests, I must have mostly enjoyed the
experience since soon afterwards I joined the DWAS (Doctor Who
Appreciation Society), waited anxiously each month in my house in Milton
Keynes for the latest issue of CT (Celestial Toyroom) to
fall onto the mat, and became a regular convention goer of DWAS,
and other, events (DWASocials in London, Panopticon’s,
including one I recall in Brighton, and Leisure Hive conventions in
Swindon). The photographs are interesting, however, in what they do not
show, and even with a hazy memory of Longleat 1983 it can be contrasted
with later events. There are a few close-ups among these photographs
(e.g. of Nicholas Courtney), and a medium shot of John
Nathan-Turner and of Sarah Sutton sitting at her autograph
table, but notably there are no photographs of myself posing
with the stars for the camera. The black-and-white photographs from
later 1980s events
also do not depict this but it must be noted that there are only a few of
these as many have been lost over the years (they may or may not depict me
with the stars, however I was actually able to interview stars for my
fanzine).
Compare all this with the multitude of photographs of me with guests
from the programme from the late 1990s and early 2000s and what you get is
a picture of a more ‘intimate’ fandom that developed with far fewer
attendees, which had its disadvantages too (not covered here). Many of
these later pictures were ‘poses’ in a specially designated photo room
(with pictures costing roughly £10 or so). But the queues for these studio
sessions were relatively short, with sometimes only a couple of minutes
wait. Note also interestingly that there are shots taken with my camera of
myself with guests in comfortable surroundings, sometimes with the guests
involved in other activity (such as Frazer Hines signing an autograph
book), sometimes with guests behind an autograph table (e.g. myself,
Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John, and myself, Carole Ann Ford, and
Jessica Carney, William Hartnell’s granddaughter), but in others just
looking at the camera (e.g. Sophie Aldred, or myself with my arms around
Debbie Watling, or myself and Nick Courtney), or enjoying a drink (e.g.
Mark Strickson and Nicola Bryant). Also note, for instance, the ‘empty
space’ around a photograph of myself and Nicola Bryant (holding a drink)
and the shots of guests at Longleat surrounded by crowds with cameras
flashing. There are also photos of myself and other fans sitting round a
table with Nick Courtney and Michael Craze drinking, and a shot of myself
and other fans at breakfast with Michael Sheard. So, a marked difference.
Of course, the more intimate conventions I describe were when the series
was off the air, and I do not have experience of those conventions since
its 2005 revival. I also remember that at Longleat 1983, the event was so
busy that I did not sit in the video tent, watching old episodes,
something that I did a lot at the Leisure Hive conventions in
Swindon, and that interested me at Oxford Local Group meetings. And even
though other members of the Oxford Local Group were there, we did not meet
until at least a year and a half later and longer in some instances. So
what I take away from Longleat 1983 is an experience. A positive
experience since I felt a sense of loss the last time I was there with
fans in the early 2000s. But not really individual memories. But I do
remember being told off by my parents for being rude to ‘the Black
Guardian’. I told him I didn’t want his autograph. Only because I already
had it. And for Longleat 1983 that must be a miracle.”

“It’s hard to believe but at the
time of Longleat 1983, Doctor Who was at the height of its
popularity and was in the mainstream attention. This was a time in history
before Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, and before Nicola
Bryant, Bonnie Langford, and Sophie Aldred in the programme, and a time
when Pat Troughton and Jon Pertwee were still with us, and therefore
serves as a historical record of their association with the programme
(videotape exists of this as seen on Myth Makers). Only two years
after Longleat came Michael Grade’s infamous postponement of the series. I
remember being deeply affected by the news which continually made the
newspapers and I got all the clippings to put in a scrapbook. There was
also the fan produced magazine Bring me the head of Michael Grade!
Therefore, it was a big ‘event’ when I, with so many other fans, watched
the first episode of “The Trial of a Time Lord” (Saturday September 6
1986) on the big screen in darkness at a Panopticon convention in
London. Imagine how impressive that opening special effect looked on the
big screen! And then it was repeated the next afternoon and rewound after
a minute or two because JN-T had arrived and wanted to see it. I was not
so affected when Doctor Who vanished from our screens in 1989,
however. I think I had the sense that Doctor Who had had its day
and that I was moving ahead with my life. I had found my interest waning
during Season 26. A lot of this was to do with the complex narrative
structures. I enjoyed “Ghost Light” part one’s atmosphere but found the
rest confusing. Gone were the days when I rushed out to buy the Radio
Times to see the captions for the forthcoming episodes, gone were the
days when I rushed back from a brief spell at cubs to see “Four to
Doomsday” part one (1982), gone were the days when I took delight in
telling everyone in the school playground that Adric had not really died
at the end of “Earthshock” (1982) as he was in the Radio Times
cast-list for “Time Flight”, and gone were the days when I cried over
Doctor Who, cried because I had been taken to France after part two of
“Time Flight” (1982) and returned to find that the video recorder had
failed to tape parts three and four (it was many years before I would see
the conclusion). Now during “The Curse of Fenric” I was looking away from
the television set and waiting for the episode to end. I was no longer
producing a fanzine and the Doctor and I had, it seemed, had our day, but
interestingly when I returned to fandom in the late 1990s, I watched the
Sylvester McCoy era with renewed appreciation: the title sequence seemed
just right for that era and among my favourite stories now are
“Ghost Light” (1989) and “The Curse of Fenric” (1989).”